Sports

After Further Review: Aaron Rodgers teaches NFL viewers a lesson about value

Still think NFL players are interchangeable, are selfish for wanting their worth and can afford to wait on their paydays? Aaron Rodgers, Khalil Mack and, yes, Le'Veon Bell should've changed your minds in Week 1. That and more in this week's After Further Review.

Sunday night’s Bears-Packers game was a three-hour master class in why the very best players in the NFL deserve to get paid what they’re worth, while they’re still worth it.

Guaranteed that the NFL owners played hooky (again), and so did the fans they've trained so well.

Who saw Aaron Rodgers grabbing his left leg in pain on the ground, then saw him getting carted to the locker room, and said, “That’s why he wanted that fat new extension, good thing he got it just in time”? Not enough of you. A decent number likely did, only because Rodgers is a quarterback, and if anyone gets paid in this league, it’s quarterbacks, especially the best ones. And he proved in the second half that he’s one of the best ever, bringing the Packers back on one good leg from out of a 20-0 hole to a 24-23 win.

Who saw Khalil Mack help buckle Rodgers' leg, saw him collapse the Packers’ pass protection, saw him spear that desperation DeShone Kizer flip and run it back for a touchdown, saw him almost single-handedly give the Bears that lead ... and said, "That’s why the Bears paid him and why the Raiders should have"? Not enough of you. Not even in Oakland and not even in Chicago.

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Too many have been fed the company line about NFL players being interchangeable, rosters pulled apart and rearranged like Legos, that they're all the Next Man Up because there’s no difference between one player and another. They fell in line with Jon Gruden, Mark Davis and the Raiders on Mack.

He isn't just another player. He shouldn't be treated like one when it’s contract time. And when he stays away from training camp to flex the only leverage he has, he shouldn't have his ability, desire or character cast into doubt for it.

Finally, who saw Rodgers' health, game and season in doubt and thought, "Okay, I get why Le’Veon Bell is sticking by his principles and giving up so much to get what he’s entitled to"? Not enough of you. Clearly not enough Steelers followers. Or Steelers teammates. Not only do so many of these believe Bell is disposable, but they think he should be disposable. His belief that he can’t take that beating, or absorb that possible season-ending or career-ending hit, for less than what he's worth was validated by the sight of Rodgers dealing with that possibility himself.

Week 1 of the 2018 isn't even done yet, and the brutal, unforgiving nature of this game has proven the value of its best players more than enough times. If the Packers-Bears game and the Steelers-Browns game haven't convinced everybody, Monday’s Raiders game against the Rams offers the next lesson.

But, truthfully, Rodgers on the cart should’ve been enough of an education.

Baffling Bills QB situation

For now, put aside the ludicrous remark by Bills coach Sean McDermott that he had to "look at the tape" to figure out why his starting quarterback was so bad in the season opener in Baltimore. McDermott isn't fooling anyone, very likely including his quarterback.

As bad as Nathan Peterman was in a little over one half, before being yanked with the Bills losing 40-0, this wasn't his fault. You can't hold the ineptitude and inexplicable decision-making of the Bills brain trust against Peterman; all he is, is in over his head, and that brain trust put him there. They've done him a terrible disservice.

Feel free, however, to ask how the Bills got to this point with that position, for a team that somehow managed to make the playoffs last year, and what they plan to do about it.

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McDermott is now fielding questions about whether Josh Allen should start against the Chargers at home next week. The Bills shouldn't even be in position to answer that question. Now, it’s not even clear what their plan was, for this season or for Allen, at all. It's clear they didn't want Tyrod Taylor, did want A.J. McCarron, and then didn't want him anymore.​

Peterman was going to be either the bridge starter for a team that’s coming off of a playoff appearance or a seat warmer for the franchise's future cornerstone. He's not suited for either job, though. McDermott seems to be the only one who thinks he is.

Maybe everybody should look at the tape to find out why he does.

Ravens' plan working

Here's who had a smart offseason and managed their fragile QB situation well: the Bills’ opponents, the Ravens. They might not look good enough to win 47-3 again this season, but Joe Flacco looks like the QB who won the Super Bowl for them six years ago … finally. It’s an old story by now, given the microscope the team was under after drafting Lamar Jackson, but everything they hoped the offseason would produce, it produced.

A healed-up Flacco (three touchdowns, no interceptions, 121.7 rating) was surgical. All his new receivers (Michael Crabtree, Willie Snead, John Brown) caught TD passes. Jackson both gave the defense new looks from various positions and acquitted himself well in mop-up quarterback duty.

Time will tell if it all lasts a full season … but it’s good enough to give Baltimore an early edge over a Pittsburgh team that, well, couldn't beat the Browns.

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Giants' OL project continues

How do the Giants expect to get better on the offensive line this season? It’s not impossible: Super Bowl teams have had transformational moments over the course of a season, and clearly in their opener, the Jaguars' defense manhandled them like they're going to manhandle most teams. But even New York's handful of bright moments — adequately protecting Eli Manning occasionally, giving Saquon Barkley enough of a sliver to break about 15 tackles on his 68-yard touchdown run — couldn't overshadow how overmatched it was.

Erik Flowers, hoping to resurrect his career at right tackle, did get and will continue to get the biggest share of blame and attention. It’s not just him, though. This will be a season-long project.

Diggs continues his roll

Last season, Stefon Diggs set the tone for the Vikings in their opener against the Saints, even though Adam Thielen wound up with far more impressive numbers at game’s end. This year, Diggs, with a new QB, did it again against the 49ers, continuing the perfect chemistry with Kirk Cousins and catching the first touchdown pass of their season.

Thielen, again, tore them up later (six catches, 102 yards, essentially doubling Diggs in both categories). Diggs lit the fuse, though. It’s continuing a phenomenal run since, obviously, the Minneapolis Miracle last year — a contract extension in the offseason and, on opening weekend, the debut of his first national TV commercial spot. Everything good is still sticking to him.

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The Earl Thomas effect

More proof of how Bell is alone on his contract-holdout island was on display in Denver. Earl Thomas held out all of the preseason hoping for a new deal or a trade … then got neither and wound up starting for the Seahawks against the Broncos. Thomas picked off Case Keenum on Denver’s second possession. The remade secondary (RIP, Legion of Boom) intercepted Keenum three times. The Seahawks lost, but clearly the defense, as gutted as it is compared to the glory days, is infinitely better with Thomas than without him.

Yet, at just 29, healthy and seemingly at his peak, Thomas won’t get rewarded for it, by the Seahawks or anyone else … just like Bell, who didn't suit up at all.

No fun for Fitzgerald

Add this name to the list of players for whom you wonder whether the reward will come, albeit a different kind of reward: Larry Fitzgerald. His 15th season, all with the Cardinals, began a little over a week past his 35th birthday. The Cardinals, with a new coach and a new quarterback, barely avoided getting shut out by Washington at home before going down meekly, 24-6. The Cardinals’ first seven possessions: punt, punt, punt, first-half kneeldown, punt, punt and Sam Bradford interception. Fitzgerald saw the ball come his way all of two times in the first half, for one three-yard reception. He decided in February, after Carson Palmer retired and before Bradford signed, to return for this season.

This year never looked like it would end in even a long-shot Super Bowl run, but the early signs don’t point to it even being a happy or fun season for Fitzgerald.